Ferry rate hikes not as high as CEO predicted

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VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – You’ll be paying more for a ride on a BC ferry next year, but you won’t have to pay as much as once feared.

The BC Ferry Commission is recommending a four per cent rate increase for major routes each year between 2012 and 2015. That works out to about two bucks a trip. It is also calling for an eight per cent increase each year on minor routes.

BC Ferries CEO David Hahn said last month the rates would likely go up by 20 per cent on major routes over four years and 50 per cent on minor routes.

Ferry Commissioner Martin Crilley says that’s less than the dire predictions from Hahn. “They are quite a bit less because of the productivity improvements that we’ve challenged BC Ferries to make. And plus the province has re-assigned some of the taxpayer funding between the routes.”

He says they felt a need to challenge BC Ferries to become more productive. If they hadn’t done that, Crilley says the preliminary increases announced today would have been somewhat higher.

Darren Inkster, the mayor of Sechelt on the Sunshine Coast, has been asking for the increases to mirror the inflation rate. “I still think it’s a large change. It’s going to be hard for many in our community to digest, but it’s definitely not as high as I’d heard it could be.”

Meanwhile, transportation minister Blair Lekstrom says the rate hikes are still too much. “I think the Commissioner has done a great deal of work, BC Ferries have done a great deal of work on this, and when you look at rising fuel costs, you look at a number of things that come in, I don’t think this is a bad report, but am I concerned about the numbers that are contained within it? Yes, I am.”

He says it’s too early to say if the government will boost its subsidy for BC Ferries and where the ferry operator could find more savings. The province has 90 days to respond, and Lekstrom says he wants to hear from the public.

BC Ferries isn’t commenting until it’s had a chance to review the report. A final decision on the rates hikes won’t be made until September.

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